Thursday, November 22, 2012

Why James Cameron's Avatar Sucks

It's not just that the story is cliched. It's that Cameron
didn't even bother trying to put a different spin on it. It is the exact same
story of White guilt, tormented natives, and the resulting revolt that we've
seen so many times before that it's become tedious. We saw it in Dances with
Wolves, Pocahontas, Atlantis: The Lost Empire, and FernGully! He plays all the
mechanics, tropes, and arcs of the story completely straight and by the book.
No effort went into the writing at all. It's all tired cliches, stereotypes,
and propaganda. It is the exact same crap that's been rammed down our throats
since Captain Planet. In fact, that's exactly what this is. It's an extended
Captain Planet episode.

Another thing I hated: demonization of the military, corporations, and humanity
as a whole. "We killed our mother" (while disregarding all that's
being done to fix it today). Then there's the ax crazy, scared Straw Racist
army captain and his band of EVIL soldiers. Having family in the military, I
just can't abide some jackass who used to a truck driver painting every man and
woman in the armed forces as some rampantly Racist and superior jackass who
just loves to shoot and kill. Then there's the sheer hypocrisy of Cameron
putting the corporation in a negative light when it is corporate Hollywood who
funds his movies. Talk about biting the hand that feeds you.

Also, the story was predictable. It never surprised me or put me at the edge of
my seat. I sat through the entire film knowing exactly what was going to happen
next almost down to perfect detail. Now, most films follow fairly predictable
patterns, but most other films have at least one thing happen I didn't fully foresee.
This one...once I knew what a trite snore-fest this was going to be, I might as
well have flipped channels because I wouldn't have missed anything by missing
it.

Secondly, the gaping plot holes and lapses in logic that defy reason. Why were
the Na'Vi never told what the "sky people" wanted? Aren't there laws
against how the Na'Vi are treated by the humans? Wouldn't there be union rules,
corporate regulations, inspectors, auditors, and supervisors who made sure the
operation was run fairly? I mean, that's how we do it now. Why would the
prerequisite laws and regulations be null and ignored in the future? Especially
in a future where the "earth is dead", despite Jake having served in
a jungle meaning the Earth actually wasn't dead. I mean, if we "killed
our mother", there'd be laws passed dictating how all businesses would be
run, how they would all have to conserve on resources and keep damage to a
minimum and that would include the operation at Pandora. This movie ignores how
all civilized countries are set up for the sake at taking pot shots at the
human race so it can conveniently label us "evil".

On top of that, there's no subtlety. It's all crammed into our faces and
nothing is left to viewer imagination. There is no mileage to vary on how each
character is supposed to be interpreted. No gray area. This is a story for four
year olds, but with a sex scene and brutal violence thrown in. This is a poorly
written fairy tale about how the pure, innocent Na'Vi are persecuted by the BIG
BAD CORPORATION along with THE BIG BAG MILITARY. The only thing the villains
were missing was handlebar mustaches to twirl.

“Cameron had to wait for the technology to catch up with the story” is a joke,
and a bad one at that. It’s also a complete fabrication, because this exact story has been told and
retold again and again. Nothing about this looks like it would take decades to
make. The writing is purely stock and the effects are standard. This could have
been in 2000.

The characters were flat, the story was stock, the direction was just decent,
the effects were nice but I really didn't care, and the message was
condescending and dickish.

Not to mention that in the movie, Earth is in a period of a
resource/energy crisis and the atmosphere isn’t even breathable anymore.
Unobtanium provides insane amounts of power needs for interstellar travel so
that resource extraction and colonization can be possible. And the Earth NEEDS
to expand or it will die, so it need the fuel that can be dug up from Pandora.
So yeah, Sully told the entire human race to fuck off and essentially condemned
them to starving to death, and all for alien nookie. Sully
is a dumb,﻿ nasty, 12 year old boy.

I saw say nuke Pandora from
orbit. No one needs that race of Mary Sues.